Cabinet



F. STRAIN CABI'NET Filed March 3l, 1937 lll-III .April 26, 1938.

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Zh/4' M ATTORNEYS.

Patented Apr. 26, 1938 UNITED STATES CABINET Frances Strain,

Cincinnati, Ohio Application March 31, 1937, Serial No. 134,129

3 Claims.

My invention relates to cabinets and more particularly to play cabinets for young children. In the upbringing of young children, one of the diiculties has always been the training of the child in matters of neatness and orderliness. A l

reason for this difficulty is thought to reside in the fact that there has never been on the market a cabinet particularly designed for children of a size which renders it convenient and easy for a child to use, and having compartments which are dimensioned to conveniently hold certain standard toys. f

In view of the above-mentioned facts, it is an object of my invention to provide a cabinet which is of a size to be easily accessible to a young child and which has a number of compartments which are specifically designed for certain purposes.

It is an ancillary object of my invention to provide a cabinet of the general type indicated above which is not only designed to-hold the toys of a young child, but which will serve in other Ways in connection with games which are played by young children.

In order that my novel cabinet will not have outlived its usefulness when the child has grown to the age where it ceases to play with toys, I provide means and certain structural elements whereby said play cabinet may be converted into a knee-hole desk, which is of a size appropriate for a grown child.

These and other objects of my invention which will be described hereinafter or will appear to one skilled in the art upon reading these specications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment.

Reference is now made to the drawing forming a part hereof, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of my novel cabinet in the form in which it is used by a small child.

Fig. 2 is another perspective view of the same with the upper portion thereof removed along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and with parts broken away to show the inner construction.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the compartments showing how said compartment may be folded back upon itself when the cabinet is converted to a knee-hole desk.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5--5 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of my novel cabinet in the form in which it is converted to a .knee-hole desk.

Fig. 7 is a detailed view of one of the folding legs.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a ramp which is adapted to be used as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

Fig. 9 is a perspective View of one end of one of the guides for the shelf and knee-hole compartment.

Generally in the practice of my invention, I provide a cabinet more or less resembling a knee-hole desk as shown in Fig.- 1. This cabinet may be of any construction well known in the art of cabinet making, and contains certain compartments. At the top of the cabinet, I have provided centrally an open front compartment I, and at the sides the open front compartments 2 and 3. As may be noted by reference to Fig. 2, these compartments do not extend the entire depth of the cabinet, but extendapproximately two-thirds of the depth. These compartments may advantageously be used for flat toys and particularly for books, such as drawing books, animals books, scrap books and various childrens magazines. The compartment I, of course., is advantageous for the larger books, while compartments 2 and 3 are appropriate for smaller books, such as school books, notebooks and the like.

Below the compartments 2 and 3 in the column portions of the cabinet, I provide drawers 4, 5, 6, and 1 of usual construction which also extend approximately two-thirds of the depth of the cabinet. vThese drawers are advantageously used for various small objects such as crayons, pencils, erasers, rulers, marbles, tenpins, pegs, beads, paint-s, flashlights, scissors, knives, ribbons and so forth. Centrally of the cabinet, in what would normally be the knee-hole portion, I'provide the compartments 8 and 9 which are advantageous for such items as nursery balls,l footballs, boxing gloves, baseball mitts, dolls, dishes, stuffed animals and the like. The structure comprising these compartments 8 and 9 will be described in more detail hereinafter. Below the drawers, in the column portions of the cabinet, I provide large compartments I0 and Il ments are adapted to hold trucks, building blocks,

wagons, doll furniture, toy kitchen stoves and larger games in general.

Below the compartments 8 and 9 I provide an open front compartment I2 which may be used to contain toys of the nature similar to those in the compartments I0 and II.\ It is tobe noted that the compartments III, II and I2 may advantageously be used in the case of little girls for a three apartment playhouse. Also in connection with adrop-leaf arrangement I3 on,the compartmentsV 8 and 9, they may be used for storerooms in playing store.

Immediately below the compartments I and 9, I may provide a pull-out board I4 which may conveniently be used by a small child as a supporting surface for drawing, painting and doing homework.

My cabinet is divided transversely at a.4 point about two-thirds the depth thereof by a wall or partition I5 and all of the compartments men- Y tioned uptothispolntextendtothiswall Il. In

this manner, I have provided to the rear of the/v wall I5 for a compartment I8 which extends the entire length of the desk above approximately the center line. with doors I1 and I3 at its opposite ends and may conveniently be used for skates, dolls, tennis rackets and the like.

The remainder of the space to the rear of the partition I6 and which is below the horizontal partition I9 provides another compartmentwhich is preferably open at both ends. This compartment may be used as a repository for lengthy articles such as bows and arrows, air riiles, baseball bats and the like. In connection with this last mentioned compartment whichI have designated as 2li, I provide a pair of ramp members 2 Ia, one of which is adapted to be placed adjacent the opening to the compartment 20 at each end. In this manner the compartment -20 serves as a tunnel for trains, trucks and the like. vAt one end of the cabinet, I have shown a blackboard 2I attached to the wall of the cabinet in any desired manner and a crayon tray 22. The blackboard 2| and the tray 22 may be removed when the cabinet is converted, as shown in Fig. 6.

From the above description, it will be seen that I have provided a convenient cabinet which is adapted to hold all of a childs toys and which has various compartments which are specifically 1 designed for certain types of toys. In this manner, a child mayreadily-be taught to put his toys away when he is inished playing with them and there is an incentive for the child to keep its cabinet and toys in good condition.

Although I do not desire size to be a specic limitation upon my invention, I have found that the following dimensions are desirable.

, Height of top surface from 1loor ..inches 29 Length of cabinet do Depth ofcabinet ..do 211/2 Width of knee-hole space ..do 18 Proportion of forward portion of cabinet to rear portion of cabinet to the rear of partition I5 2 to 1 'Ihis compartment is provided annessoV mounted in any conventional manner, such as is illustrated in Fig. 1. v

The two portions 23 and 2| of this compartment are hinged by means of one or more hinges 21 and adjacent the front of this compartment 5 is provided a bolt 23. The bolt 2l is mounted to be reciprocable in the side wall of the compartment and in the play cabinet the bolt 2l is adapted to engage in a-recess 29 in a'wall of the cabinet in order to hold the compartment in place. l0 In converting this cabinet into a knee-hole desk when the child has grown, the bolt V2l is retracted and the whole compartment is withdrawn from the position shown in Fig. 1. The front pornon 23 is then folded about the hinge 21 to the is position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3.` There is provided a recess 30 in the side wall of the compartment at the rear into which the bolt 23 may be inserted to lock this compartment in its new position. This structure may then be 20 placed on top of the cabinet as indicated at 3| in Fig. 6 and forms a pigeonhole structure having a complete back with al1 compartments open at the front. 'Ihe pull-out shelf member Il may then also be withdrawn and in this manner the 25 knee-hole space is greatly enlarged.

'Ihe guides. Ila for the shelf Il and the compartment 8, 9, are readily removable when the cabinet is converted, as best seen in Figs. 6 and 9. 'I'he members Ila are provided with headed pins 30 Mb which are adapted to be inserted and retracted in a known manner from the keyhole slots Mc.

I have further provided beneath the cabinet.

a number of folding legs 32 which are nonnally 35 in horizontal position asv may be seen in dotted lines in Fig. 2. These legs are hinged by means of a hinge 33 or any other desired means, to the under side of the cabinet.

When it is desired to convert the cabinet into 4o a knee-hole desk the legs 32 are erected to the position indicated at 32a in Fig. 7, whereby the desk is raised off the iloor and the knee-hole space is made adequate for a grown child. A pin 33h may then be inserted through the wall of 4|;

the cabinet and into the hole 33a in the leg 32 to hold it in erect position.

The bottom I2a of the compartment I2 is'also provided with means whereby it may readilybe removed when the cabinet is converted. I have provided pins 40 in the edges of the member I2a, and slots 4I in the walls of the cabinet, as shown in Fig. 6. The slots 4I communicate with two depressed portions 42, which are spaced to seat the pins 40.

While I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention in considerable detail and have specified certain dimensions as being desirable, it is to be understood that these are by way of example and not by way of limitation'and 60 that I do not intend to limit myself otherwise than as speciiled in the claims which follow.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is: A Y

l. Ina convertible play cabinet, generally re- Y sembling in form a knee-hole desk, a removable compartment arranged in the knee-hole region,

'y said compartment having a rear wall, and having a front door constituting a drop-leaf arrangement, said compartment being transversely divided into tw o pieces hinged together at onev side, whereby upon removal from said knee-hole region said compartment may be folded upon itself to constitute a pigeon hole structure adapted to rest upon the top of said cabinet and having double the width and one-half the depth of said original compartment.

2. In a convertible play cabinet, generally resembling in form a knee-hole desk, a removable compartment arranged in the knee-hole region, said compartment extending more than one-half but less than the full `depth of said cabinet, said compartment having a rear wall, and having a front door constituting a drop-leaf arrangement, said compartment being transversely divided into two pieces hinged together at `one side, whereby upon removal from said knee-hole region said compartment may be folded upon itself to constitute a pigeon hole structure adapted to rest upon the top of said cabinet and having double the width and one-half the depth of said original compartment.

3. lA convertible play cabinet comprising a plurality of compartments adapted to contain a child's toys, said cabinet being generally in the form of a knee-hole desk and of a height at which the uppermost compartments are readily accessible to a young child and the bottom compartments thereof being substantially flush with the floor,certain of said compartments being located in the knee-hole region of said cabinet and being removable, and said cabinet having legs adapted to be erected to raise said cabinet off the floor to a height at which its top surface is appropriate as a Writing surface, and the knee-hole space, with said removable compartment removed, is adequate for a grown childs desk.

FRANCES STRAIN. 

